Jonas Kasper Jensen, Flo Maak, and Rebecca Ann TessOn the possibility of life in ruinsHuset for kunst og design2017

On the possibility of life in ruins2017

On the possibility of life in ruins2017

On the possibility of life in ruins2017

On the possibility of life in ruins2017

On the possibility of life in ruins2017

On the possibility of life in ruins2017

On the possibility of life in ruins2017

On the Possibility of Life in Ruins

The installation is like the ruins of a modern city, which is a post-apocalyptic scenario based on their observations not only of megacities in East-Asia, but small towns in Germany and Denmark as well. As different as these places seem, they are connected through global economy, a changing world climate and the ruins of urban utopias. Picking up on the paradigm of constant circulation, the artists has created an infrastructure for its own sake, like fibre cables in an abandoned smart city with nothing to circulate. They are reconstructing the empty centre of (post-)modern cities by capturing them in traces of steel, glass and templates of urban planning. There is a distorted grid of steel wires, reminding of 3D design mesh and contemporary high-rise architecture. Printed industrial fabric hanging from the wires is indicating both the possibility of shelter and a short cut between construction and destruction. Photographs of almost deserted semi-public space contributes another fragment of present-day cityscapes. Sound of artificially generated plastic, metal and glass is circulate through the space, making the spectres of modern urban utopias audible, yet, also creating comfort for the visitors: You are not alone in this. Together the works form an uncanny reproduction of something quite familiar, yet, it has been stripped to its bones. It’s neither a futuristic projection nor a historic survey, it’s just staging the question, here and now: How life is possible in such ruins?